Travel : Basseterre, St. Kitts

Basseterre, St. Kitts was another interesting port via Royal Caribbean “Brilliance of the Seas” Cruise.  All the shops are pretty much at the port once you get off the ship.  We were greeted by many locals with monkeys wearing diapers asking if we wanted to take a picture with it — we politely declined. We were tempted to rent a scooter and just ride around the island on our own, but thought it might be too tiring, so we opted to do a local bus tour. 

There was a cool “Rum Tree”, where people could hang their empty rum bottles to the tree.  Close by was an example of Carib Petroglyph Rock Drawings. On a side note : those that are interested in becoming doctors, there are many medical schools in St. Kitts ; people often fly in from India, US, etc to study here.  Continuing with the tour, we stopped off at Romney Manor, where we saw the Saman Tree and Lipstick Plant. There were also demos of batik-making in the shop.  Later we stopped off to see the volcanic black sand beach.  To quench our thirst, we got some fresh coconut juice — which was sooo good!

CREDITS
Article + Photos : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]

Travel : Royal Caribbean Cruise "Brilliance of the Seas"

This was my first time cruising.  Glad I was able to find a good deal for Royal Caribbean International — it was for 7 nights and we got a balcony suite.  We decided to fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico to take the “Brilliance of the Seas” ship because everyday the ship docked somewhere new except for one day at sea. 

So we got a taste of different nearby islands such as : Tortola {British Virgin Island}, Philipsburg {St. Maarten}, Basseterre {St. Kitts}, Pointe-a-Pitre {Guadeloupe}, Bridgetown {Barbados}, and then back to San Juan {Puerto Rico}, where we stayed for an extra 3 days. “Brilliance of the Seas” was a probably a mid-sized ship, which was kept really clean and everyone was very friendly.  I was worried about sea-sickness, but was ok for the duration of the trip. Every now and then you would feel the ship rock, but it was expected.

Evening entertainment was fun — some of the acts included “Happy Days” singer Bobby Avron, comedians Azeem and Jeff Bradley, “Brilliance of the Seas” singers and dancers, etc.  Activities on the ship that we tried included : rock climbing, billiards, table tennis, etc.  The food; hands down was spectacular — I’m pretty sure I gained a few pounds when I got back. 

Some highlights of the evening dining at Minstrel included lobster tail, escargot, shrimp, cod fish, tiramisu, creme brulee, souffle, etc.  Breakfast and lunch was usually buffet at the Windjammer, but occasionally we’d go to the Seaview Cafe for some yummy chicken fingers or fish and chips.  Overall it was a great experience — it was nice spending part of the winter holidays in warm weather.  You don’t get much time to explore on each island, but at least you get a taste of what each island is like, so if you really enjoyed it, you could go back another time. 

CREDITS
Article + Photography : M Studio Life [info@mstudiolife.com]